Iraqi Pols Respond to Elections

Posted on Nov 9, 2006

epic-usa.org

Americans weren’t the only ones watching election returns late into the night. Iraqi politicians, dependent on America for money, power and protection, held a meeting to debate the impact of a Democratic Congress.

Los Angeles Times:

In government offices shielded by concrete blast walls, some Iraqi officials appeared concerned Wednesday that the power shift in the U.S. Congress and the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld could effect major changes in policy toward their bloodied nation.

Members of Iraq’s dominant Shiite Muslim political bloc said worries were raised at a closed-door caucus that the Democrats’ ascent on Capitol Hill could hasten the departure of U.S. troops and stem the flow of funds to their beleaguered government while insurgent and sectarian violence rages.

U.S. officials had already brought up the possibility of reducing aid to Iraq. The issue came up during meetings to persuade Prime Minister Nouri Maliki to accept timelines to make tough security and political decisions, such as dismantling Shiite militias blamed for nightly killing rampages against Sunni Arabs, who make up the backbone of the insurgency.

“Whoever will be in the House should now keep the promises that were made to Iraq regarding the arming of security forces, rebuilding Iraq and supporting the political process,” said an anxious Diyadhin Fayadh, a Shiite cleric and member of the United Iraqi Alliance parliamentary bloc.

Thanks Lee Driver (comment 37315)for your cogent analysis of the enormity of bad stuff the Democrats have to face up to and ameliorate in the next several years of governance. The “centrists” have some value but they cannot be left to play a power grab game. They’ve been too close for too long to the Republicans to be trusted nor are they daring enough to make real change happen—to “stretch the goodness” in all of us.

By Montie Shields USAF RET., November 9, 2006 at 3:06 pm Link to this comment(Unregistered commenter)

Isn’t it amazing the very same group of people
that attempted to ASSASSINATE Saddam Hussein
is getting another shot at him. Thanks Good
OLD GEORGE W.‘s Hand picked Judge, jury,and
EXECUTIONER. If OLD Saddam’s neck get stretched
real soon it will accomplish at least TWO
things. BUSH will get his REVENGE for Saddam
putting a hit on DADDY, and he won’t be around
to spill the beans about some old Americans
dating back to the early eighties. Like Fats
Domino said, “Aint That a Shame.”

The unpleasant fact here is that we’re responsible for the destruction of a lot of infrastructure and the deaths of a lot of people. In our own legal terms, if our deeds were looked at objectively, we’re liable. There is no court with any teeth to say this, but it is so. And if we were to cop to it, which no lawyer would reccommend, it is reasonable to expect that the Iraqi’s would make us pay forever if they could. Additionally problematic is that even if we could come to some agreement about reparations with the current Iraqi government, there’s no reason to believe the Iraqi populace, with all it’s factions would go along. So how do we get out of this responsibly? How do we do the right thing?

One, we have to stop killing people. Two, we have to publically hold to account our own people who caused this mess. Three, we need to, without guns, fix or help them fix what we broke.

There is currently no one to talk to in Iraq who represents all the Iraqi people. And if there were, they quite frankly, have no reason to trust us. Our usual tools of coercion, covert actions, sanctions, threats and use of force are all worthless at this point. That game is up, whether in the Middle East, Latin America or any where else. If we don’t know this now, we will. We need a new way of acting.

So do they.

Someone has to start. We did the Iraqi people wrong. We owe them. We need to own up, and offer to make amends. It’s the responsible thing to do. It might not work. Then again, the same goodness that’s in all of us might might just like to stretch its muscles for a bit. No guarantees. It’s worth a try.